The Shaw's Motel at 87 Bridge St., in Northampton will probably not be demolished for a year as a result of the Historical Commission's decision to invoke the city's demolition delay ordinance.The Republican file

According to Sarah LaValley, the Planning Department liaison to the commission, the demolition delay ordinance protects buildings from demolition for up to one year. Established in 2005, the ordinance allows the Historical Commission to put a moratorium on demolishing buildings that are deemed to have historical significance.

Shaw’s was run for more than a half century by Josephine A. Shaw, who rented its rooms mostly to the poor and needy, some of them former Northampton State Hospital patients. She sold the 20-unit motel, along with houses at 7 and 9 Pomeroy Terrace, to her son, Donald Shaw in 2010. The properties were then put on the market for an asking price of $1.6 million.

Harold R. Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Properties in Northampton has applied to the Building Department for a permit to knock the motel down and renovate 7 and 9 Pomeroy Terrace, although there is no record in the Hampshire County Registry of Deeds that he has purchased the property. The motel has been vacant for years. Fitzgerald could not be reached for comment about his plans on Monday.

LaValley said the Historical Commission had mixed feeling about invoking the ordinance.

“They felt stuck because they didn’t know a whole lot about the building,” she said. “It’s definitely an old structure.”

Some have conjectured that the motel dates back to the 18th century, LaValley said. No members of the public spoke for or against demolition at the meeting, but Building Commissioner Louis Hasbrouck told commission members the building is in bad shape.

The commission left open the possibility that the motel could be torn down in less than a year if the applicant submits evidence that there is no feasible option for historic preservation.